HELSINKI: Consumption of hard coal, 1,000 tones. Source: Consumption of hard coal, Statistics Finland. Consumption of hard coal decreased by 17 per cent in the January to March period compared with the corresponding period of last year, according to Statistics Finland’s preliminary data.
Consumption as a fuel in the generation of electricity and heat amounted to 1.1 million tonnes, corresponding to around 27 petajoules in energy content.
Compared to the average for the early 2000s, the hard coal consumption was now 36 per cent lower, the data show. The warmer January than last year in part influenced the use of hard coal in separate electricity production, which was 44 per cent lower in the first quarter than in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The hard coal consumption in Finland typically fluctuates seasonally. Some of the fluctuation is explained by the natural variation in the need for electricity and heat between the summer and winter seasons. The water situation in the Nordic countries also affects the demand for condensate production in particular. At the end of March 2015, stocks of hard coal totalled 3.5 million tonnes, which was 26 per cent more than one year earlier according to the statistics.
